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#OTD in 1923 – Éamon de Valera announces end of operations against the Irish Free State, effectively ending the Irish Civil War.
Éamon de Valera offered terms for negotiation to end the war which were rejected. But time was running out for the anti-Treaty side and on 24 May, de Valera issued the order to dump arms. In doing so he declared: “Soldiers of the Republic, Legion of the Rearguard… Military victory must be allowed to rest…
#OTD in Irish History | 27 April:
1652 – Oliver Cromwell published a declaration that Irish Wolf Dogs or Irish Wolfhounds were prohibited to be exported and insisted that locals continue to breed sufficient numbers of the mighty hounds to hunt wolves. 1653 – The last major body of Irish Catholic troops under Phillip O’Reilly surrender to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland…
#OTD in 1916 – Easter Rising Dublin | Day 4.
It is the fourth day of the Easter Rising and the remaining rebels are under constant attack. The GPO and Four Courts are being blitzed with machine gun and rifle fire, and large parts of Sackville Street (O’Connell Street) are up in flames. As British authorities come to terms with the situation in Dublin, fierce street…
#OTD in 1652 – Oliver Cromwell published a declaration that Irish Wolf Dogs or Irish Wolfhounds were prohibited to be exported and insisted that locals continue to breed sufficient numbers of the mighty hounds to hunt wolves.
In 16th century Ireland, the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains were overrun with wolves and bounty hunters arrived from England, Scotland and Europe and wolf hunting became a profitable holiday adventure. In the mid-17th century, Oliver Cromwell published a declaration in Kilkenny on this date that Irish Wolf Dogs or Irish Wolfhounds were prohibited to be…
#OTD in Irish History | 26 April:
1718 – Thomas St Lawrence, 13th Baron of Howth, received £215 14s 1 1/2d for the expense he incurred in building a quay at Howth for landing coals for the lighthouse. 1745 – John Allen, 3rd Viscount Allen, former MP for Carysfort, killed a dragoon in a street brawl. ‘His Lordship was at a house…
#OTD in 1916 – Easter Rising | The Battle of Mount Street Bridge, Dublin.
Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann! Commandant de Valera, Lieutenant Michael Malone of the 3rd Battalion, James Grace (Section Commander) and the other volunteers set out on the day of the Rising to march to Boland’s Mill. Their task was to secure Boland’s Mill and Mount Street Bridge, which was a well-known route…
Eamon Bulfin, the Irish-Argentinian who hoisted the Green Flag of the Republic over the GPO.
Eamon Bulfin was an Argentine-born Irish republican. A former pupil at Pádraig Pearse’s school St Enda’s (Sgoil Éanna), in Rathfarnham, Dublin. Bulfin was a member of the Irish Volunteers and the IRB and along with some fellow St Enda’s students created home-made bombs in the school’s basement in preparation for the Easter Rising. He was…
#OTD in 1916 – Francis Sheehy-Skeffington was apprehended while trying to stop looting during the Easter Rising and was later murdered by the British without trial.
Francis Skeffington, writer and pacifist, was born in Bailieborough, Co Cavan on the 23 December 1878 to Joseph Bartholomew Skeffington and his wife Rose née Magorian. The family moved to Co Down shortly after his birth. He was educated by his father, a schools inspector and enrolled in University College Dublin (UCD) in 1896. While…
#OTD in 1966 – In 19th Century Dublin, Montgomery St was the largest red-light district in Europe.
At least 1,600 ladies conducted their business and the future King Edward VII lost his virginity there. This specialisation was immortalised in the song ‘Monto’ (Take Me Up To Monto) by the Dubliners, recorded on this date. Image | Elliot Place, Dublin, c 1930s
#OTD in 1916 – Easter Rebellion | British Troops move into Dublin.
One day after the Proclamation of the Irish Republic is read by Pádraig Pearse on Easter Monday and a day of limited activity, British authorities start to take action. By the end of the day, 7,000 troops will be moved into Dublin from Belfast and the Curragh. Those British forces stationed in Ireland that were…
#OTD in 1976 – Tens of thousands defied a ban on commemorating the heroes of Easter 1916 at the GPO in Dublin.
In 1976, the 60th anniversary of the Rising, the southern state and the republican paramilitaries – particularly the Provisional IRA were in frank confrontation. The Irish government banned that year’s proposed Easter parade by republicans under the Offences Against the State Act – its anti-terrorist legislation. Just ten years after the state’s own bombastic commemoration…
#OTD in 1921 – Thomas Trayner was hanged in Mountjoy Prison, captured during an ambush on Auxiliaries in Brunswick Street, Dublin, on 14 March 1921.
Thomas Traynor was a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) hanged in Mountjoy Gaol during the Irish War of Independence. Traynor was born on 27 May 1882 in Tullow, Co Carlow, and was 38 at the time of his death. He was an experienced soldier having been a member of the Boland’s Mill garrison…
#OTD in 1916 – Sean Healy, one of the youngest martyrs of the Easter Rebellion, was shot and fatally wounded.
Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann! Sean Healy, 15 years old, was a member of the Fianna Eireann North Frederick Street Sluagh. He joined in 1913. When the Fianna was restructured in 1915, his branch became No. 6 Company in the Fianna Battalion. Sean Heuston, who was also vice-Commandant of the whole Dublin…
#OTD in Irish History | 25 April:
1185 – Henry II sends his son John to Ireland; John lands at Waterford on this date to assert control over Hugh de Lacy, but he fails to achieve this. Henry still suspects that de Lacy wants to be king of Ireland. 1681 – Count Redmond O’Hanlon (outlawed chief) was fatally shot by his foster-brother,…
#OTD in 1914 – Large supply of guns from Germany were landed at Larne for the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
The UVF gun-running of April 1914, known as Operation Lion, was an effective military operation; though many of the 100,000-strong UVF remained unarmed after it. The Ulster Volunteer Force had been formed in January 1913 and from that date, small-scale gun-running had been carried out. In fact, up until December 1913, when royal proclamations made…
#OTD in 1916 – John Francis Foster was one of the many civilian children killed during the Easter Rising.
John Francis Foster was born in Dublin, and lived with his parents at 18 Manor Place, Stoneybatter. On the 24th April John Francis Foster was caught in the crossfire whilst his mother Catherine pushed his pram towards the city centre from their home. A gun battle broke out and John was shot outside the Father…
#OTD in 1916 – Easter Rising | Margaret Keogh was shot and killed by British soldiers while rushing to attend to patients and the wounded at the South Dublin Union (now the site of St James’s Hospital).
Among the first victims of the Easter Rising was a nurse rushing to attend to patients and the wounded. Margaret Keogh (Kehoe), from Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow. Margaret was working as a nurse in the South Dublin Union (now the site of St James’s Hospital). Six republican riflemen, who had been firing from a top floor…
#OTD in 1916 – The Pivotal Irish Insurrection against British Rule in Ireland Commences.
The Easter Rising of 1916 had little chance of success (which its leaders knew) and initially had limited support from the Irish population, but a series of major mis-steps by British authorities lit a fuse that ultimately forced Britain to withdraw from 26 counties just six years later. Timeline: At noon, Pádraig Pearse reads the…
#OTD in Irish History | 24 April:
1718 – Birth of portrait painter, Nathaniel Hone, in Dublin. 1764 – Birth of Thomas Emmet, nationalist and brother of Robert Emmet, in Dublin. 1857 – William Thompson, journalist, is born in Derry. 1885 – Birth of athlete, Con Walsh, in Carriganimma, He represented Canada at the 1908 Summer Olympics. He won a bronze medal…
#OTD in Irish History | 23 April:
1014 – Battle of Clontarf: The Dublin Norse and the king of Leinster, with Viking allies from overseas, are defeated by Brian Boru’s army at Clontarf. Brian, now an old man, is killed. This thwarts the potential domination of Ireland by the Norse, but they are well established in the coastal towns, and will continue…
#OTD in 1967 – A local parish priest voiced his extreme opposition to the appearance of Jayne Mansfield at the Mount Brandon Hotel in Tralee, and the concert was duly cancelled. Two months later, she was killed in a car accident.
Jayne Mansfield landed in Ireland after her screen career had been on the slide for some time when she signed up for a one-night stand in the Mount Brandon Hotel. She was to be paid the princely sum of £1,000 for 35 minutes of cabaret. The booking immediately divided the council, with Councillor Michael O'Regan…
#OTD in 1014 – Battle of Clontarf | The Dublin Norse and the king of Leinster, with Viking allies from overseas, are defeated by Brian Boru’s army at Clontarf.
The bounds between Irish Legend and Irish Myth has often been blurred, especially as the retelling of heroic deeds has been passed on through generations. Brian Boru was no legend although his life deeds were legendary. He was very much a real man and was in fact the last great High King of Ireland and…
#OTD in 1916 – Approximately 1,000 copies of The Proclamation of the Irish Republic are printed in Liberty Hall in a print office set up by James Connolly.
The proclamation would be read by Pádraig Pearse outside the General Post Office on Sackville Street (now called O’Connell Street) on Monday 24th April. The proclamation was printed secretly on an old and poorly maintained Wharfedale Stop Cylinder Press in the printing office that had been set up by James Connolly in the basement in…
#OTD in 1916 – Pádraig Pearse read out the Proclamation of Independence after his men had seized the GPO.
At four minutes past noon on Easter Monday, Pearse, read the Proclamation. It signified the start of the Easter Rising. POBLACHT NA h-EIREANN THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition…
#OTD in Irish History | 22 April:
1365 – Lionel returns to England, leaving Ormond as his deputy. 1671 – An English Navigation Act prohibits direct importation of sugar, tobacco and other produce from the colonies to Ireland; act expires in 1681 but is renewed in 1685 and extended in 1696. 1717 – John Marshall, a successful attorney and father of Robert…
#OTD in 1916 – Eoin MacNeill’s last minute bid to call off the Easter Rising.
The letter penned on Easter Saturday, 22 April 1916, by Irish Volunteers chief Eoin MacNeill, dispatched to rebel leaders in an effort to call off the planned revolution. “Volunteers completely deceived. All orders for to-morrow Sunday are entirely cancelled,” says the note signed by MacNeill on what is now a tatty piece of paper, embossed…
#OTD in 1875 – Birth of Michael Joseph O’Rahilly in Ballylongford, Co Kerry.
Michael Joseph O’Rahilly was born in Ballylongford, Co Kerry in 1875. He was a republican and a language enthusiast, a member of An Coiste Gnótha, the Gaelic League’s governing body. He was well-travelled, spending at least a decade in the United States and in Europe. He was a reasonably wealthy man; the Weekly Irish Times…
#OTD in 1969 – Bernadette Devlin, a newly elected MP, made a controversial maiden speech in the House of Commons.
I understand that in making my maiden speech on the day of my arrival in Parliament and in making it on a controversial issue I flaunt the unwritten traditions of the House, but I think that the situation of my people merits the flaunting of such traditions. I remind the hon. Member for Londonderry (Mr.…
#OTD in 1994 – Northern Ireland Lord Chief Justice, Sir Brian Hutton, quashed the conviction of Paul Hill for the murder of a former British soldier in 1974. Hutton declared that the conviction was ‘unsafe and unsatisfactory’.
An appeals court overturned a 19-year-old murder conviction against Paul Hill, who spent nearly 15 years in prison for two IRA attacks that he insisted he never committed. The decision was the latest rebuke to the British police for mishandling high-profile terrorist cases in which innocent people have gone to jail. The court ruled that…
#OTD in Irish History | 21 April:
1738 – A Mr Lorimer, receiver of Sir Arthur Acheson (MP for Mullingar), is killed in a duel. 1816 – Birth of author of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë, daughter of an Irish father and eldest of the three Brontë Sisters. 1871 – Birth of Labour leader and Irish nationalist, John Fitzpatrick, in Athlone, Co Westmeath.…
#OTD in 1916 – The first casualties of the Easter Rising were on Good Friday in Co Kerry.
Three Volunteers, Con Keating, Charlie Monahan and Donal Sheehan, drowned when their car plunged off a pier into the sea while they were on the way to Cahirciveen in order to set up radio communications with Sir Roger Casement and the German arms ship the Aud. Five men set off from Dublin by train to…
#OTD in 1916 – Sir Roger Casement arrived in Tralee Bay, Co Kerry on board a German U-boat.
From 1915 Kerry was central to plans for the Rising. In autumn of that year Austin Stack, the leader of the Volunteers in Kerry and a member of the IRB was informed by Pádraig Pearse of the plans for the Rising. Arrangements were being made for an arms shipment from Germany to arrive in Tralee…
Éirí Amach Ná Cásca 1916 | The Birth of a Nation!
The Easter Rising took place in April 1916 in Dublin and is one of the pivotal events in modern Irish History. At the end of the Easter Rising, fourteen men identified as leaders were executed at Kilmainham Gaol. To some, these men were traitors, to others they became heroes. It was the first major armed…
#OTD in 1915 – Joseph Mary Plunkett travelled to Germany to join Roger Casement and assist him in his efforts to raise an Irish Brigade and garner German support for the planned 1916 Rising.
Once in Germany, Plunkett met with Casement, a former member of the British Foreign Office, who had travelled from America, funded by Clan na Gael under the leadership of John Devoy. Arriving in Berlin on 31 October 1914, Casement’s mission to Germany had three basic aims: 1. To secure German help for Ireland; 2. To…
#OTD in Irish History | 20 April:
1176 – Death of Anglo-Norman lord, Richard Fitzgilbert de Clare, known as Strongbow, in Dublin. Strongbow came from England to Ireland at the urging of Diarmait Mac Murchadha. 1608 – Sir Thomas Phillipps was granted a license by James I to the Old Bushmills distillery in Co Antrim, which is thought to date from at…
#OTD in 1912 – Death of Bram Stoker, the Dublin born writer who created Dracula.
Death of novelist Bram Stoker, author of Dracula which was first published in 1897. Born in Dublin, Stoker was bed-ridden for much of his childhood, but lived a relatively healthy life during his adulthood. Educated at Trinity College, he moved to London in 1878 and married actress Florence Balcombe. Dracula received some praise on its…
#OTD in 1608 – Sir Thomas Phillipps was granted a license by James I to the Old Bushmills distillery in Co Antrim, which is thought to date from at least 1276 – the oldest distillery in the world.
Uisce beatha is the name for whiskey in the Irish language. The word “whiskey” itself is simply an anglicised version of this phrase, stemming from a mispronunciation of the word uisce. This may in turn have influenced the Modern Irish word fuisce (“whiskey”). The phrase uisce beatha, literally “water of life”, was the name given…
#OTD in 1995 – Father Ted was broadcast for the first time.
A television programme offers to interview Father Ted Crilly. However Ted goes to extreme lengths to ensure the other members of the clergy on the island don’t interrupt his moment in the spotlight. Meanwhile Craggy Island hosts Fun Land, a fun fair to which Dougal is desperate to go. Ted takes the film crew to…
#OTD in 1608 – O’Doherty’s Rebellion was launched by the Burning of Derry.
In the 1530s, King Henry VIII of England colonised the Pale of Ireland and confiscated the land for the British Crown. Any land beyond the Pale, including Ulster, was still largely under the control of the Irish Lords. However, this was short lived and by the 1540s almost every Irish Lord had accepted the King’s…
#OTD in 1916 – The ‘Castle Document’ was read out at a meeting of Dublin Corporation. It alleged nationalist leaders were to be arrested, and caused Eoin MacNeill to alert the Irish Volunteers. It is believed to have been a forgery by Joseph Plunkett.
Five days before the Rising the Evening Mail carried a story that would have a bearing on the course of events and create a controversy which still burns. Addressing a meeting of Dublin Corporation, Thomas Kelly of Sinn Féin read into the record the text of a secret document he had been given. Known as…